St. Paul's School boys cross country opened their 2026 competitive season with a partial squad at the Manchester Invitational on the famous and challenging Derryfield Park course. In the small school (for institutions with fewer than 1,010 students) varsity race, St. Paul's repeated its 4th-place team finish from last year and competed well in the 39-school field. Captain Owen Gorenc '27 also repeated his 9th-place finish from the previous year, and Charlie Harvey '29 joined Gorenc earning a medal for his top-25 finish among 263 competitors. In the junior varsity race, St. Paul's improved markedly on its finish from last year by placing 11th of 40 teams and posting significantly faster times as a group. Henry de Neufville '29, in his first race, earned a medal of his own by going from 103rd place at the mile to 14th across the finish line at 5K. With a strong opening race in hand, St. Paul's looks ahead to two more invitationals in the coming week: at Holderness School on Wednesday, September 23rdfor the Lakes Region Invitational and at Northfield Mount Hermon Saturday, September 26th for the NMH Invitational.